BitFunder Founder Charged by SEC for Stealing $61 Million Worth of BTC 577

Today, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought charges against Jon E. Montroll and his exchange BitFunder for operating an unregistered securities exchange and defrauding users. On top of that, the agency also charged the operator — Montroll — with making false and misleading statements in connection with an unregistered offering of securities. BitFunder was a platform that permitted users to buy and sell virtual “shares” of various digital currency-related enterprises in exchange for Bitcoin.

“We allege that BitFunder operated unlawfully as an unregistered securities exchange.  Platforms that engage in the activity of a national securities exchange, regardless of whether that activity involves digital assets, tokens, or coins, must register with the SEC or operate pursuant to an exemption.  We will continue to focus on these types of platforms to protect investors and ensure compliance with the securities laws,” said Marc Berger, Director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office.

The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal district court in Manhattan, charges Montroll and BitFunder with violations of the anti-fraud and registration provisions of the federal securities laws. The complaint seeks permanent injunctions and disgorgement plus interest and penalties. 

The agency alleges Montroll operated BitFunder as an unregistered online securities exchange and defrauded exchange users by misappropriating their Bitcoin, and also for failing to disclose a cyberattack on BitFunder’s system that resulted in the theft of more than 6,000 Bitcoin. Going off the price of Bitcoin today, that’s about $61,800,000.

“As alleged in the complaint, Montroll defrauded exchange users by misappropriating their bitcoins and failing to disclose a cyberattack on the exchange’s system and the resulting bitcoin theft.  We will continue to vigorously police conduct involving distributed ledger technology and ensure that bad actors who commit fraud in this space are held accountable,” said Lara S. Mehraban, Associate Regional Director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office.

Unfortunately for Montroll, his legal troubles don’t stop with the SEC: Also today, in a parallel criminal case, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York filed a complaint against him for perjury and obstruction of justice during the SEC’s investigation. This implies that Montroll, in some way, must have not fully cooperated with the SEC during the agency’s investigation.

This case comes as the SEC is cracking down on other companies and individuals it believes are partaking in shady business within the crypto-space. In January of this year, the agency advised people to “exercise caution” with Bitcoin and other digital currencies.

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Plutus Card to Launch in the United States, 8% Crypto Rewards Accessible by Millions 839

Plutus is a London-based FinTech providing industry-leading crypto reward rates and 20+ Perks such as 100% back on Netflix, Spotify, and Prime. Its user base has experienced 20.4% Month-on-Month (MoM) growth due to the value customers get from its rewards programme.

Currently, Plutus is available in the United Kingdom (UK) and European Economic Area (EEA). In Q1 2023, Plutus will launch its finance app and card in the United States (US), the largest crypto market in the world.

Plutus has partnered with Prepaid Ventures (PPV), one of the leading debit card solutions in the United States, to issue its Plutus-branded Visa debit cards to US residents.

Danial Daychopan, CEO & Co-founder, comments on the announcement:

“This is a major milestone. Soon, a population of 330m will be able to earn substantial amounts of crypto simply for living their lives to the fullest! We know there is a huge demand for our services and we have full intentions to become a dominant player in the U.S. neo-banking sector.”

Andrew Siden, CEO at Prepaid Ventures, comments on the partnership:

“We are very excited to have been chosen by Plutus, an industry leader in the crypto distribution space. As both an innovator and a market leader, Plutus has carved out a considerable share of the crypto market. At PPV, we are perfectly built to support Plutus in bringing its solutions to the US and providing its customers with a dynamic and reliable platform customized to match Plutus’ offering in the EU.”

“Our missions are well aligned and we look forward to a successful partnership with the Plutus team.”

Plutus recently experienced a huge surplus of card orders, issuing 6-months’ worth of card stock in less than 6 days and ultimately running out of card stock. Now, 50,000+ users are signed up on a waitlist until cards return in stock.

  • Join United States waitlist: www.plutus.it/unitedstates-waitlist
  • Join UK/EEA waitlist: https://dex.plutus.it/info/download-apps

About Plutus

Founded in 2015, Plutus disrupted the rewards card industry by creating the world’s first crypto rewards token, Pluton (PLU).

Customers earn 3-8% crypto rewards on all purchases and select up to 8 in-app Perks such as 100% back on Netflix, Spotify, and Prime – rewards come in the form of PLU. An accompanying bank-like app allows users to track their rewards and fiat balances.

Plutus has converted 47% of MAU to paid subscription tiers due to the value of its rewards programme.

DeFi platform Grizzly.fi collects $26M in Community Fair Launch 1076

Grizzly.fi, the crypto platform that simplifies investing in the best opportunities in DeFi, has collected $26 million in their so-called Community Fair Launch. The innovative launch strategy used by the company attracted the attention of many high-profile DeFi investors. The launch is officially the best performing launch in history on the Binance Smart Chain without a launchpad. They collected four times more than the previous record holder on the Binance Smart Chain, making them the 10th biggest BNB holder.

After 18 months of developing, planning, and creating meaningful partnerships, the Grizzly.fi platform is officially going live. Having completed 5 Cybersecurity audits including Hacken.io, the company has put great importance on its security. In addition, they already announced their partnership with the Swiss Crypto Valley Association back in September 2021.

The Grizzly.fi team will continue building out their Ecosystem to accelerate the mass adoption of DeFi and improve their product offering.

Andres Soltermann, Co-founder of Grizzly.fi said “The journey has been incredible so far. What started as a vision to ‘Make DeFi accessible to everyone’ is now finally taking shape. We will continue to build and break barriers to eventually reach mainstream adoption. In this process, our focus lies on utility, user experience, and security. People will be able to use our platform to earn stable yields with the greatest user experience possible”

The DeFi sector has been growing exponentially over the last few years, however, there is still an incredible amount of room for improvement. What sets Grizzly.fi apart from most projects is its focus on usability, security, and scalability. The team has multiple Blockchain PhDs on board and has strong ties to several Auditing firms. It’s clear that the company is laying the foundation to become an established company in the industry

About Grizzly.fi

Grizzly.fi, a FinTech company, is looking to disrupt the DeFi industry with its Yield Farming platform. It is a crypto platform that simplifies investing in the best opportunities in the DeFi space and aims to be the Hub of long-term capital growth in crypto. With a strong focus on UX and usability, they hope to bring DeFi to a mass audience.

DeFiChain Community Brings Attractive Rewards For DFI ERC-20 Pairs on Uniswap 1500

DeFiChain, the world’s leading blockchain on the Bitcoin network dedicated to bringing decentralized financial applications and services to everyone, is thrilled to announce that its community has voted to offer lucrative liquidity mining rewards for the ERC-20 format of its native DFI token pairs on Uniswap. The proposal put forth by DeFiChain’s Lead Researcher received more than 96% votes in favor.

DeFiChain has allocated one million DFI tokens from the Community Fund to incentivize liquidity mining for the DFI-ETH, DFI-USDT, and the new DFI-USDC pairs on Uniswap.

The Community Fund receives a small percentage of the block rewards and has accumulated over 27,092,291 DFI tokens, which are available to anyone interested in developing on the DeFiChain blockchain. However, funds are only released if more than 51% of the nodes agree to the proposal. Masternodes are eligible to sign a message to either agree or deny a proposal.

With leading exchanges like Bybit and KuCoin now supporting DFI in ERC-20, the DeFiChain community voted to increase the token’s utility in the ERC-20 format. The incentives are aimed at increasing the trading volume of the ERC-20 format of DFI, and boosting the visibility and awareness of DFI in the wider DeFi ecosystem. The increased trading volume should also encourage more adoption of DFI by other exchanges and services.

Santiago Sabater, the CEO of DeFiChain Accelerator said, “With the new liquidity pools and the various upcoming projects to increase the utility of DFI on ERC-20, DeFiChain’s adoption is growing massively. DeFiChain is opening the gates to offer its decentralized assets such as decentralized stocks, commodities and ETFs to the whole DeFi community on the Ethereum blockchain. This will result in massive capital inflows, pleasuring DeFiChain’s investors while creating new use cases for Ethereum users.”
The liquidity mining rewards will be distributed in the following manner:

  • DFI-ETH pair at 0.5 DFI per Ethereum block
  • DFI-USDT pair at 0.25 DFI per Ethereum block
  • DFI-USDC pair at 0.25 DFI per Ethereum block

In total, one DFI token will be distributed per Ethereum block. Just like DFI emission rate on DeFiChain mainnet, block reward is scheduled to reduce by 4% every 7 days (in blocks) starting 9AM UTC on August 22. Before that, rewards will only be distributed at a constant rate of 1% of the above rates. It is estimated to allow the reward to sustain well over a year.

A smart contract will be published on Ethereum mainnet that allows the rewards to be paid out in accordance to the schedule. Upon publishing of the smart contract, DFI will be placed in the smart contract in tranches, for safety reasons.

An accompanying decentralized app will be launched for liquidity providers to take part in the liquidity mining program.

About DeFiChain

DeFiChain is a decentralized Proof-of-Stake blockchain created as a hard fork of the Bitcoin network to enable advanced DeFi applications. It is dedicated to enabling fast, intelligent, and transparent decentralized financial services. DeFiChain offers liquidity mining, staking, decentralized assets, and decentralized loans. The DeFiChain Foundation’s mission is to bring DeFi to the Bitcoin ecosystem.

CME Group to Launch Euro-denominated Bitcoin and Ether Futures on August 29 2033

CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, today announced it plans to further expand its cryptocurrency derivatives offering with the introduction of Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures on August 29, pending regulatory review.

Designed to match their U.S. dollar-denominated counterparts, Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures contracts will be sized at five bitcoin and 50 ether per contract. These new contracts will be cash-settled, based on the CME CF Bitcoin-Euro Reference Rate and CME CF Ether-Euro Reference Rate, which serve as once-a-day reference rates of the euro-denominated price of bitcoin and ether. These new futures contracts will be listed on and subject to the rules of CME.

“Ongoing uncertainty in cryptocurrency markets, along with the robust growth and deep liquidity of our existing Bitcoin and Ether futures, is creating increased demand for risk management solutions by institutional investors outside the U.S. Our Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures contracts will provide clients with more precise tools to trade and hedge exposure to the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap,” said Tim McCourt, Global Head of Equity and FX Products, CME Group. “Euro-denominated cryptocurrencies are the second highest traded fiat behind the U.S. dollar. Year-to-date, the EMEA region represents 28% of total Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts traded, up more than 5% versus 2021.”

“The launch of euro-denominated Bitcoin and Ether futures from CME Group will help meet the growing demand for regulated and robust, non-USD crypto derivatives,” said Edmond Goh, Head of Trading at B2C2. “As the premier OTC counterparty, we look forward to continuing to provide liquid markets in this important asset class.”

“TP ICAP is excited to support another market-defining cryptoasset product from CME Group. Our Digital Assets business has been operational and brokering CME Group cryptoassets since the start of 2020, originally in London, followed by expansion to the U.S. in 2021 and, most recently, in APAC via Hong Kong and Singapore,” said Sam Newman, Digital Assets Head of Brokering at TP ICAP. “Interest in cryptoassets has seen huge growth, and these new euro-denominated futures contracts will help further expand the accessibility and utility of cryptoasset derivatives, particularly within Europe.”

CME Group’s Cryptocurrency product suite continues to provide consistent liquidity, volume, and open interest for clients seeking to hedge their risk or gain exposure to the asset class. Q2 was a record quarter in terms of average daily open interest (106.2K contracts) and was the second highest quarter ever in terms of average daily volume (57.4K contracts) across all Cryptocurrency products. In addition, Ether futures achieved a record average daily volume of 6.6K contracts in Q2, up more than 27% versus Q1.

For more information on this product, please visit https://www.cmegroup.com/cryptocurrencies#explore-our-cryptocurrency-products.

As the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals. The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex® platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform. In addition, it operates one of the world’s leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing.

Cryptomus Simplifies The Process Of Cryptocurrency Payments While Maintaining Safety, Transparency And Quality 2295

Cryptomus wants everyone to know that accepting cryptocurrency payments is now in fact easier than ever before, as all that is needed to successfully do it is nothing more than a mere email address or phone number. It is even possible to generate payment links without users needing to have their own websites, and they can also connect to API for more functionality. By having such reliable and quick payment processing, Cryptomus is providing a top payment gateway for ecommerce and online payments.

How is Cryptomus helping make crypto payments easier?

There are several aspects which make Cryptomus a top choice for crypto payments. For starters, their commissions and fees are comparatively much lower than the various other online payment processing companies which accept payments and they start at 0.4% too, depending on the turnover. Additionally, the crypto payment processor’s services can be smoothly integrated into any type of business or project.

Moreover, one of the most infamous elements associated with crypto is volatility and unpredictable market behavior. With Cryptomus, however, there is no longer any need to worry about crypto volatility as the rate will be fixed after the users accept it and make the conversion to the coin of their choosing. Apart from this autoconversion aspect, Cryptomus also supports a wide range of different cryptocurrencies like LTC, TRX, DASH, ETH, BTC and more.

What about security?

Blockchains are widely considered to be safer, more stable and transparent than that of traditional financial institutions, such as banks. With Cryptomus, users can even enable the ability to only withdraw to certain ‘authorized’ addresses in their personal accounts, which means that any withdrawals to other wallets would be prohibited.

Cryptomus has also enabled 2FA (two-factor authentication), which many believe is a vital feature these days due to the increasing number of fraudulent activities, data hacks, and security risks. This 2FA system is completely flexible, and Cryptomus does not require KYC procedures either as it is a technical platform for developers that offers a convenient and user-friendly interface for the purposes of automating work with crypto.

What else is there to know about Cryptomus?

Cryptomus is a crypto payment system and blockchain payment processor/gateway which provides merchant services for businesses that cater to all kinds of customers. Usually, crypto payment gateways are needlessly complex and have too many limitations which often stifle the customers. With Cryptomus, crypto payments can be accepted from anyone anywhere in the world with low transaction fees and without a website. Cryptomus is also useful if individuals just want to have their own secure crypto wallet for fund storage.

The platform offers an intuitive user interface which is optimized for all devices, and there is quick and reliable support available at all times as well. Furthermore, the money is paid instantly and users can easily track the transaction if need be. More importantly though, the platform’s features allow for complete anonymity and all incoming funds will only belong to the user and shall never be frozen or refunded for no reason as is often the case with classic e-wallets and banks.

Why should you choose Cryptomus?

Ultimately, choosing Cryptomus makes sense as it is an innovative crypto payments platform that also functions as a cryptocurrency wallet. The platform offers plenty of value and utility, and the biggest advantage would certainly be the ability to make extremely fast payments easily. Users can accept crypto by generating payment links and then redirecting the payer to them, which will display a convenient form with the required payment data. Users can also utilize the API integration, which Cryptomus will be helping with.

The platform has also witnessed over 100,000 transactions happen to date, with many more expected to occur before long. Regarding future goals, Cryptomus will implement useful widgets for the site, helpful statistics, auto-withdrawal and auto-split functionalities, Telegram notifications, a P2P exchange, input and output of fiat currencies, and so much more in order to become the best cryptocurrency payment gateway. Ultimately, Cryptomus aims to make crypto payments easier and more accessible, which is something that is desperately needed nowadays as the crypto industry continues to become increasingly popular and mainstream with more and more companies accepting crypto.

Equito Finance to Release Its Second Testnet in August 2666

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Equito Finance, a Decentralized Exchange on the Algorand blockchain, has announced that it will launch its Testnet 2.0 in August. Furthermore, the cross-chain-supported exchange revealed that the highly anticipated incentivized Testnet 2.0 would go live on the 1st of August, 2022.

According to the team, the Testnet will include incentives for the first 3,000 testers with opportunities to earn even better incentives for participation.

In explaining the incentive model, the Equito Finance developers revealed that testers would be rewarded with special Equito Finance NFTs with unique value. Holders of these NFTs will automatically be eligible for Equito Finance’s EQI governance token, which is scheduled to be released later this year. That said, each holder will receive their EQI at launch. In addition, the owner can sell their NFT, and anyone can purchase more from Equito’s collection on the ALGOxNFT marketplace.

The Testnet 2.0 Incentives

The special incentives are designed to reward testers for taking part in the Testnet. The rewards will then be distributed and assigned in a strategic way based on their level of commitment to the project.

The first tier of incentives consists solely of a common NFT. This will be made available to the first 3,000 testers. Users who are not part of the first 3,000 testers will still have a chance to receive one or both of the next two tiers.

Equito will only pay the tier 2 winners and the best average overall. The tier 2 winners will be rewarded Tier 2 winners will receive $150 USDC each and the tier 3 winner will receive $550 USDC. Again, only the tester who bridges the most liquidity, adds the most liquidity to the liquidity pool and swaps the most will receive these rewards.

About Equito Finance

Equito Finance is a cross-chain Decentralized Exchange on the Algorand blockchain ecosystem where users can swap and earn on a true cross-chain Dex. Behind the project is a highly motivated community of developers.

One of their primary goals is to constantly seek social innovation in the financial market by adapting the best technological solutions to major market problems such as accessibility, security, and liquidity.

Equito Finance aspires to be an open protocol for issuing, managing and accessing securities and crypto assets on the primary and secondary markets. The initiative is motivated by a desire to create a strong, open, and trustless financial market where bids and asks meet without the involvement of third parties.